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Bowling

Bowling is a very popular sport, within Scottish War Blinded’s membership, which proves highly effective in reducing isolation, promoting positive health and well-being as well as camaraderie.

Bowling was first played by Scottish War Blinded members at the charity’s early permanent residence at Newington House in 1915, who traditionally used hand clapping to indicate the location of the Jack as well as large white boards to contrast with the black bowls. Today, members use a line down the centre of the rink to provide a point of reference for directors to call out clock based instructions to assist in accuracy.

The sport brings members together of all ages and abilities at the Linburn Centre, who play matches on our new outdoor bowling green as well as indoors at Centenary Hall. Members from across Scotland have the opportunity to participate in Scottish War Blinded's annual Blind Bowling Tour who play a mixture of sighted and visually impaired teams across the country. In many cases, our members will meet fellow veterans living with sight loss and encourage them to apply for Scottish War Blinded membership.

Scottish War Blinded member Ian Graham has captained our Blind Bowling Tour in recent years, who said:

"Our bowling tour is the perfect opportunity for members to come together to enjoy a friendly game of bowls. Many of our members experience considerable isolation having experienced sight loss, and bowling can play a significant role in regaining confidence and independence. Members also enjoy the opportunity to be ambassadors for the charity whilst on tour and have successfully recruited a number of new members as a direct result."

A number of our members, like Ian, have represented Scotland as visually impaired internationalists, who have proudly played matches across the globe for their country. Scottish War Blinded member David Thomas was part of the Scottish silver medal 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth paralympic Games team.